Ali decided to make a ‘sacrificial offering’ to God during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, local media report. On that day, Qureshi bought some sweets and lured his daughter Rizwana, who at the time was staying at her grandmother’s place, into his house.

Late at night, the man took Rizwana to a room on the ground floor, cited verses from the Koran, and slit her throat, Jodhpur police official Rajan Dushyant told the Times of India. He then went back to sleep.

Qureshi’s wife, Shabana, woke up early in the morning to find the lifeless body of her daughter lying on the veranda. Police searched the crime scene and summoned Qureshi for questioning.

At first, the man, who runs a meat shop, “tried to convince his kin that a cat may have killed Rizwana, but his wife filed a murder complaint against an unidentified person,” Dushyant said.

During the investigation, Qureshi eventually confessed to the murder.

“I love my child more than my own life. I offered my daughter as a sacrifice,” police quoted the man as saying, according to Hindustan Times.